Two arrested over UN slayings, army says

Soldiers have arrested two suspects in the killings of three United Nations peacekeepers in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a military spokesperson said Thursday. The arrests came the morning after the three Indian peacekeepers died during a raid of the UN base in Kirumba on Wednesday.

Reuters

Major Vianney Kazarama said one of the men arrested, named as Tembea Mumbere, confessed to the killings.

"He admitted to everything," Kazarama said. "He said that they had been sent to track down and kill people with Monusco," the acronym for the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

He added a second suspect, named as Justin Kambare, was "currently being interrogated".

Around 60 suspected rebels entered the Indian contingent of the UN camp with machetes early Wednesday, leaving the three peacekeepers hacked to death and seven others injured.

Kazarama suggested the rebels' motive was that Monusco was blocking their integration into the armed forces. A disarmament and integration deal for militia groups is part of a wider peace deal in the volatile eastern region of the DRC.